After the events on the beach, Vera had brought her sister to her cabin and had stayed with her until she had finally fallen asleep. Like her sister, Vera had chosen to skip dinner and go straight to her cabin. To her great dismay, Isla did not seem to be present. Likely having dinner or maybe spending time with Elsie, the blonde had left Vera alone with their two intolerable cabin mates. Not in the mood for Jessica and Calista's mindless rambles Vera had left the cabin without as much as a good night.

She considered going to Elsie's cabin, but given the new nature of her relationship with Isla, Vera did not want to risk intruding.

Vera walked towards the beach and climbed on their rock. She laid on her back looking at the stars, barely registering the distant sounds of campers around the campfire.

Skill Certifications

Isla had spent the evening with Elsie after Vera had taken Jane back to camp, and while nothing had happened between her and the older witch, Isla had enjoyed the time they had spent together. Elsie had read silently next to her while Isla had stared out at the dark water of Lake Tshakapesh. Eventually Elsie had mentioned that Isla was welcome to stay for dinner, and while she hadn't answered her, Elsie had cooked enough for two. They spoke about politics, literacy and surprisingly, Elsie's brother. The older witch had never spoken about her family life before, and frankly neither had Isla, so it had come as quite a shock when Elsie had brought up a man named Nicholas who beaten up all the boys who had pulled her hair and poked their tongues at her while growing up. Isla had nearly been inclined to share her own story about her own sibling, but she had gotten cold feet at the last minute and had remained silent.

After a cup of decaffeinated coffee, Elsie didn't drink anything else, Isla had said goodbye after a quick but heated kiss that had left Isla hot and bothered. Elsie had known, the smile on her face more telling that Isla thought she realized, and then she had shut the door slowly, leaving Isla to head back to camp beneath the moonlight.

She was nearing the rock she and her friends sat on nearly every day, a rock not ten minutes away from the campgrounds when she noticed a body lying at the very top. She paused, the crunching of the sand beneath her feet disappearing as she stared. Had it not been for the foot moving in the air, tracing the constellations above, Isla probably wouldn't have recognized Vera laying there.

Moving forward, making sure her steps were louder than usual to alert her friend to her presense, Isla stopped at the bottom of the boulder and stared at Vera.

Twisting her neck awkwardly to look at who was approaching, she noticed Isla walking towards her. "As are you," Vera observed with a gentle smile. Given the direction, Isla had come from she knew exactly where the petite blonde had spent her evening. She sat to leave room for her friend. "I can't spend a second with Jessica and Calista without you there to protect my sanity, I simply can't." She offered as an explanation.

Skill Certifications

Isla let out a noise of understanding as she took a seat on the bottom of the rock, her legs disappearing beneath her as she did so. She sat a little way a ways from Vera, keeping her back to the woman as she listened, her gaze on the lake before them.

"If that's what it means to be 'normal'," She said, pushing away the urge to use literal air quotation marks, "I want nothing to do with it." Normality was something Isla had never been able to grasp growing up, and while she still sometimes wondered why she was born this way, Isla never really found herself envious of other girls her age. If being normal meant gossiping about boys until the early hours of the morning, and making fun of anyone who lived outside the margins, than Isla truly was glad to be who she was. Abnormal. Strange. Peculiar. Creepy. All those things she had been called many times, but not once had they had the effect on her that the person had hoped to.

Tracing the seam of her denim jeans, she pulled her lips into a thin line as she found a stray string of cotton further down the pant leg, "I will not miss them when we leave here for the last time."

"I am not sure normal is what they are. I would be more inclined to call them basal or superficial." Unlike Isla, Vera had never been teased for being different. She was rather unremarkable and often went unnoticed by her peers. As of late, however, the tendency was starting to change. She hadn't noticed it at first, but now that she had grown a few inches and knew how to arrange her hair, it seemed the boys had suddenly started noticing her. She was still reserved and timid which made the whole ordeal odd to navigate, but she did sometimes find herself appreciating the attention.

"I will not miss them either." She looked at her friend sadly as she realized that their summer together would eventually come to a close meaning they would yet again have to part ways. She remained silent for a moment, her gaze moving from the stars to the calm water, the liquid reminding her of her sister of feared it so violently.

"Hey," she moved to sit beside Isla. "About earlier, I..." She pushed a strand of her long hair behind her ear as she tried to formulate what she was trying to express. She nibbled on her bottom lip before she finally spoke. "I wanted to thank you. There aren't many people who connect with Jane, I know she got upset and I don't know what prompted that, but that's beside the point. I just want you to know that I appreciate the fact that you engage with her, she really seems to appreciate you." The last thing Jane had asked before she had fallen asleep had been if Isla would be upset with her which was remarkable given how little Jane seemed to wonder about other people's sentiments. Her lack of understanding of feelings, in general, seemed to make her avoid the topic.

Skill Certifications

Not turning her head to look at Vera as she sat down next to her, Isla played with the piece of thread coming off her pants with a dissatisfied look on her face that had nothing to with what Vera was currently speaking of. She gently tugged on the thread and it unraveled more.

"Your sister is a very intelligent girl. She will succeed in anything she puts her mind to if she can learn to filter out the unimportant." Just like Isla had learned, and was continuing to learn. Isla was an extremely gifted witch, with a path laid out before her that she had every intention of following, she just needed to keep distractions and anything meaningless to a minimum.

She licked her lips, "I do hope however, that I didn't upset her too much. Sometimes I...forget that how to speak to people. Even ones who ware similar to me."

"She was upset," Vera saw no point in denying it. "Would you like to tell me what you were discussing?" Jane had blatantly ignored the question, instead requesting that her sister continue talking about investment portfolios. Vera wondered if Isla would be more loquacious.

Skill Certifications

Of course Jane hadn't felt the need to explain what had upset her, and really, Isla couldn't blame her. Jane wasn't the sharing type and neither was she.

"I was just...sharing." Isla replied quietly, tightening her hold on the loose thread and then suddenly pulling it tight, causing it to snap. She lifted the blue string up and studied it beneath the moonlight.

“I know you didn’t. I know.” Vera reassured as she patted Isla’s leg gently. Numerous were the things that could upset Jane, even she -who considered herself rather good at navigating her sister’s many quirks- inadvertently managed to upset her at times. “It’s good that you feel comfortable sharing with her.” As odd as it might seem to consider that a teenager might share with a child more than a decade younger, Vera could easily see that the two had a connection that very few could understand.

“You spent the evening with Elsie?” She wasn’t sure if Isla would be more inclined to share on this matter, but she knew that it was better to move on than linger on a topic for too long.

Skill Certifications

Isla hasn’t exactly felt comfortable sharing with Jane, no one would ever make her feel at ease when discussing such things, but she didn’t correct Vera, not seeing any reason why she should rid her of any positive thoughts when it came to her younger sister.

“I did,” Isla admitted steadily, not feeling an ounce of shame about wanting to spend time with the one person who understood her. “She said to say hello.”

Vera smiled politely as Elsie's brief message was shared with her. While she was not completely comfortable with the relationship between her friend and the older woman, she could see how it seemed to appease her friend. Her resistance to the relationship did not stem from disapproval, it was rather out of concern for Isla. Elsie was an accomplished woman who knew what she wanted and how to attain it. Isla was a guarded person who's walls were so thick that many forgot to even consider that she could be hurt. Vera, however, was not one of those people, while she had never been told how, she knew her friend had already suffered greatly and she did not want her to suffer a broken heart when inevitably she would grow attached to the older woman.

With their relationship on her mind, she had wondered how it would be to be with someone who was older, someone who was of the same sex as her. She nibbled on her lower lip as she considered asking her private friend. "Is it easier than with a boy our age?" She attempted, not even sure her friend had experience with boys their age.

Skill Certifications

It took Isla longer than it should have to understand what her friend was talking about, but when she did, she immediately she felt her chest and cheeks grow hot. Was Vera really asking her that? Surely Vera knew that Isla hadn't even kissed a boy properly let alone done that with one.

"I-I don't know," Isla admitted, wishing that she could get rid of that damn stutter that only popped up when she was uncomfortable. "Elsie is my-my first."

She had not really intended for the question to bring on this revelation, yet now that she was thinking about it she should not be surprised. Realizing she was making her friend uncomfortable she smiled reassuringly.

"I haven't been with anyone. Not like that." She said feeling her own cheeks getting warmer.

Skill Certifications

A little surprised to hear that Vera hadn't been with someone sexually, especially considering how much she had...bloomed in the last year, Isla turned her head to look at her friend. Isla stared at Vera, taking in her ruddy cheeks and the slightly bashful look in her eyes that told her that Vera might not even be aware about how much she was changing.

"Oh," Was all she could say, not really knowing what she was supposed to say in response Vera's admission. "Well, I'm sure Viggo has done it enough times to make up for our lack of experience." She joked weakly.

"Hum, I don't think so." Vera had been of Isla's opinion until Viggo had told her otherwise and had insisted that he was waiting to be in a serious relationship. "I think our friend is an undercover gentleman." She chuckled. The more she thought about Viggo and his little crush on Isla, the more she wondered if he had been hoping that his first time might be with Isla. Not that it mattered now.

Hands beneath her thighs she looked at the calm lake for a few seconds before she turned towards her friend. Her earlier thought still on her mind, she couldn't help but wonder how it would be if her first time was with a woman. She opened her mouth to speak, but shook her head and looked away before she said anything.